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“Luffy, stop hoggin’ all the blankets!” Ace shouted in irritation. He tugged harder than necessary on the hem of a checkered-pattern quilt right below his waist.
They’d spent the past hour trying to get some shut-eye, with his little brother tossing and turning in fits—which proved to be a strenuous and exhausting task to carry out.
Luffy huffed, like he was the one being wronged. “But it’s cold.” His fists bunched into the collar of his shirt, shivering.
Ace knew this was a losing battle. The weather was slowly changing, meaning the nights were chillier and the days were shorter. And naturally that meant Luffy was especially annoying and clingy-for body warmth.
“If you’re cold, i’m sure Dadan has more blankets we could borrow.” Sabo said suddenly next to him. Ace sighed, internally grateful for his twin’s level-headedness.
Luffy tensed under the many blankets he stole from their shared pile. For a moment it was silent, save the sound of chirping outside.
“I’m not cold.” Luffy decided simply, the contradiction between his previous statement giving Ace whiplash.
Sabo suppressed a chuckle next to him.
“What? But you just-“ Ace began indignantly, before huffing and burying himself in the little patch of blanket covering his body. “Y’know what, forget it.“ He mumbled, too exhausted and bewildered to argue any further.
The room fell silent again. Ace’s eyelids were getting heavier by the moment, fluttering shut against his pillow. He was blissfully unaware of the fact that he was next to his brothers, cozy and warm in the way one was before finally drifting off.
Except something knocked into his shin, rousing him from his half-slumber. His last straw was the small foot digging into his shin. He ripped off the blankets and started to glare daggers at his little brother.
“Luffy I swear-“ Ace began, teeth grinding. His temper was even worse when he was sleep deprived because of a certain someone—
But Luffy wasn’t looking at him. His face blocked by a familiar straw hat. Ace frowned. Luffy hardly wore his hat to bed, unless he was intentionally seeking out comfort by the object, or he accidentally fell asleep wearing it. It looked like he hadn’t even meant to kick him, too conflicted with whatever’s got him tossing and turning.
Ace’s previous anger dissipated as quickly as it came.
“Hey Lu,” Sabo voiced, before Ace got the chance. “What’s got you so riled up, anyway?” His voice was soft in the way it got whenever one of them got hurt, or when Luffy would sometimes cling onto them nights where it felt like they would disappear.
“Nothin’,” Luffy’s voice was muffled from the blanket, but it still managed to sound small.
Ace and Sabo shared a look™, collectively unconvinced. This was weird, even for Luffy. He was stubborn but he was honest and open with his feelings, despite being one hell of a crybaby. That was what made him their little brother.
“Spit it out already, Lulu. We wanna go to sleep, and you need it too.” Ace said pointedly. Luffy had been even more whiny than usual from poor sleep. Though he would never admit this to his face—Ace was maybe even a little concerned. But only a little.
“Yeah, Luffy, come on.” Sabo encouraged. Twin telepathy strikes again.
Luffy made an exaggerated sound somewhere underneath the blankets, half groan and half hmph, obviously unhappy about being forced to fess up. Slowly, his eyes peeked over the blanket.
“I want to stay brothers forever.” Luffy murmured, uncharacteristically gloomy. Ace and Sabo shared a frown, collectively confused.
“You moron. We shared sake, remember? That means we’ll always be brothers.” Ace huffed. He didn’t see that changing anytime soon.
“Yeah. No matter what.” Sabo chimed in, agreeing.
“I know that,” Luffy wobbled. They both sat up straighter at that, immediately on edge at the tone of their little brother’s voice.
Luffy blew out a shaky breath, and Ace didn’t like how his face was still partially covered by the blankets. “Just.. we can’t die, ‘kay? None of us. Not till we become pirates together.”
Oh, so that was it then.
Sabo broke the silence, shifting so that he was closer to Luffy. “Hey, where’s this coming from?” He asked softly.
Ace couldn’t say he wasn’t curious too, this seemed random; even for Luffy. Which, he watched as he somehow curled up even further under the various blankets at the question. Sabo got it right on the mark. Huh.
“Mmph,” Luffy mumbled incoherently from underneath, giving away absolutely nothing.
“Speak up runt,” Ace grunted, ignoring the dirty look that earned him from Sabo—who let out a long-suffering sigh.
Finally, Luffy’s beady eyes popped up over the blanket, hair sticking out in every which way like he’d gotten electrocuted. Ace suppressed a chuckle at that until he got a better look at his brother. it was obvious that he’d been crying, if only a little bit. His eyes were red-rimmed and flushed around the skin.
“I had a bad dream..” Luffy admitted miserably, sniffling. “It was really scary!”
“What kind of dream, Lu? Come on, give us somethin’ here.” Sabo inquired.
“I already told you those monster assholes ain’t real. Well, there’s sea monster’s, but..”
Sabo elbowed him again, harshly. “Ace. Not helping.”
“No!” Luffy shook his head fervently, pushing himself up with his elbows. He blinked wide, wet eyes at them. “I dreamt that you and Ace.. you were gone, and..”
Luffy’s breath hitched, and suddenly everything made sense. It explained his brother’s strange behavior, the questions, and his general clinginess.
“Oh, Luffy..” Sabo whispered next to him, clearly on a similar page.
Luffy was crying in earnest now, though it was clear he was trying not too—that was another small thing that had changed over the months they had gotten to know each other.
“Hey, it was just a stupid dream..” Sabo tried, uncharacteristically at a loss of what to do as he gave a look that clearly said help me to Ace. “We’re still—“
“Shut the hell up!” Ace said fiercely, a rekindled fire in his eyes. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m never gonna die!”
Sabo looked surprised for a fleeting moment before he broke into his chipped smile, fervently nodding. “Me either. Luffy, you’ll never be alone again!”
Luffy looked up with a gross sniffle, tears still wet on his cheeks. Ace watched as his frown grew into a small smile, relief evident in his features.
“Yeah?” Luffy seemed to gain confidence as that sentiment sat with him. “Yeah, okay! D’ya promise?”
He said it with the childish assumption that a promise was all the confirmation in the world—like the simple words were coated in pixie dust.
“Yeah, Lu. We promise.” Sabo beat him too it—then literally beating Ace, hard, raising an eyebrow in a silent plea.
“What’s the big deal? I already said i wouldn’t die.” Ace blew out a huff of breath, looking at Luffy’s puppy dog eyes. “Yeah, yeah, i promise.” He grumbled.
Luffy lit up. “We’re gonna become pirates together, right?”
“Obviously.” Sabo confirmed.
“Obviously.” Ace answered, almost at the exact same time as his brother.
“J—“
“Double jinx!” Luffy called out with a laugh. He stared between his muted brothers, each sending their own pleading look to him and felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest.
Suddenly drained, Luffy let out a loud yawn, flopping back onto the pile of blankets left out on the wooden floorboards.
“G’night, guys.” He said to his still-mute brothers with a small smile, oblivious to the way their irritated glare’s grew into fond smile’s as his eyelids slipped shut.
“Love ‘ya..” Luffy mumbled as he drifted off to sleep. Ace and Sabo shared a silent grin, knowing they felt the exact same.
In the morning, Luffy would wake up back to his old self and shout his brothers name’s until they woke up too, having forgotten all about the game—and then they would have alligator for breakfast and annoy Dadan for more blankets until Luffy forgot his fears, but for now, they were content with sleeping together under the starry night, promises of sake and adventure on their tongue.
Whatever happened in the future, they had each other to figure it out. That would be enough.